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Controversial writers against INIormonism are unani- mous in discarding this whole story of angel visits and gold plates as a pure invention, and brand Joseph Smith as an impostor. Yet there seems to be no ground for such a harsh judgment. That Smith had at one time in his possession metallic plates of some kind, with en- graved characters upon them, there appears no reason to doubt, if human testimony be accepted as evidence. Where and how he got the plates which he exhibited to a number of persons, and whether the Book of Mormon is a veritable interpretation of the characters on those plates, are verj' different questions. Again, whether or not the narrative presented is true and of any impor- taiice to the world as a subject of faith, are still different questions. Certain it is that Mormon apologists have thus far failed to account on reasonable principles for the close resemblance of portions of their inspired writings which the}' claim to be taken from speeches, exhorta- tions, and sermons said to have been delivered by ancient American prophets and apostles, who of course never saw, or could see, the English Bible as it now exists in its modern translation, and for the still more strange appearance in their writings of tlie errors of transla- tion existing in the English version made 1200 years
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after the death of the last of these American seers (comp. Stenhouse, p. 538-545). Besides, Gentile po- lemics have brought forward evidence to show tliat, with the exception of certain illiterate and ungram- matical interpolations bearing on religious matters, the so-called Bouk of Mormon was really borrowed or copied nearly verbatim from a MS. romance written by an or- dained minister named Solomon Spaulding, who was born at Ashford, Conn., in 17G1, and was educated at Dart- mouth College (class of 1785), and who died in 181G at Amity, Pa. It is unnecessary to go over the arguments pro and con. Suffice it to say, that o/j/z-Mormons general- ly think them conclusive, while the " Saints" consider tlie whole story of Si)aulding's MS. romance a scandalous fabrication. There is unquestionable evidence that the said Spaulding did write something about tlie ancient inhabitants of America; that his MS. was intrusted for publication in 1812 to a bookseller named I'aterson at Pittsburgh, Pa.; and that Spaulding dying before pub- lication, the MS. remained in Pittsburgh, where a copy of it was made by Sidney Kigdon, then one of I'ater- son's compositors, but afterwards the associate of Josejih Smith in the promulgation of Mormon doctrines; and it is furthermore asserted by one of Spaulding's brothers, from his recollection of portions of the MS., that it was identical with the Book of Mormon, &nA that the latter ■was indeed the bona-fidc work of his deceased brother; this statement being sustained by several of Mr. Spaul- ding's friends from their remembrance of the readings to which they liad frequently listened. It is tlicre- fore conjectured by anti-.Mormonists that Kigdon (into whose hands Spaulding's romance is supposed to have fallen for some time) gave it to liis new associate to further his purposes when he joined him in 1829, and that the latter — in whose soul there may have been some ruile and gross religious notions and feelings — devised the ungrammatical interpolations. This theory acquires some probability from the fact that those re- ligious passages do not refer to the Old-WorM faiths and the practices of an ancient ritual, but to quite modern questions, such as interested the people of Western New York about 1830. Calvinism, Universalism, Methodism, Millenarianism, Roman Catholicism are discussed, if not in name, yet in reality. But those who accept such statements as the true solution of the origin of this book must necessarily conclude that Joseph Smith was "a deliberate falsilier and wilful impostor." The most incisive writer on this subject — John Hyde, jun. {Mormonism, its lA'wlers and Uiscipks), formerly a Mormon elder — unhesitatingly announces this as his own conclusion. Yet there is no good ground for such a position if it be considered that the Book of Mormon Avas in preparation for [jublication when Smith first met Kigdon, and that he was already noted as the discover- er of the gold plates. ^Ve cite the comments on this great (lucstion by Mr. Stenhouse, who, as he was him- self once a believer, is most likely to know whereof he speaks. He says :
I' To conclude that there was 'wilful' imposture in the origin of AInrinonisni is, hi an argumentiitive sense, to ' take arms a-jainst a sea of troubles' to which there is no limit. Tliere is, however, an easy solution of the difficnitv respecting the oriL'iii of the book— i.e., to admit honest credulity in Jo.'cph Smith, in the persons who ' witnessed unto the world' of that which they saw, and in all that follows in the history of the Morni'on nioveinent. Proli- ably, if Mr. Hyde were now to wiile on the subject, wliile he would umlonbtciUv inc-scive the same powei-fnl argu- ments against tlu; diviiiily of tin- l)ook, he would conclude that Joseph Smith was after all only an extfaofdinarv •spirit niedinm,' and had been sMbjected to all Ibe va"- gailes and caprices of that iiecnliar condition. In this solution of the diflicnity ie^i)cctiiii; .Joseph's claims there is a perfect consisleiicv, and it liannoni/.es completely with the tesfinionv both of the orlliodcx and the holero- dox. It admits the claim of honesty in Joseph Smith and in his 'witnesses,' .lud eipial honesty in those who have rejected their testimony and denounced the folly of their assertions. In brief, wiien Joseph Smith said that he had visions, dreams, and revelations, it is best to allow that he